György Grozer spiking through the Canadian double block at the Palatrieste

Trieste, Italy, September 27, 2010 – Despite a continued lack of consistency Germany beat Canada 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-20) at the Palatrieste to register their first victory of the tournament and keep alive their chances of reaching the next stage of the competition. The turning point came towards the end of the first set when Canada missed a couple of set balls, after which the “Canucks” failed find their way back into the match.

Germany had no choice but to go all out for victory and wait for the result of the evening’s last match in Pool F between Poland and Serbia. The Canadians felt they too had a great chance of making the second round and made their intentions plain through the contributions of their middle blockers. Germany meanwhile, as in their two previous matches, experienced severe peaks and troughs.

It was neck and neck in the first set before a block from Germany’s György Grozer created the first mini-break at 21-19. Canada hit back to give themselves two set balls in a row but they missed each time and Germany showed no mercy to claim a vital 27-25 set win.

In the second set Germany leapt out to a 9-6 lead but were pegged back to 9-9 as the left-handed Douglas Soonias inspired Canada and Germany showed sudden defensive frailties. Nevertheless Grozer claimed another set ball for Germany and Frederic Winters spiked long for Canada to make it two sets to nil.

The opening of the third set was one-way traffic as Germany took a 6-2 lead with the Canadians looked pretty resigned and more and more holes appearing in their defence for the German spikers to exploit. But Canada found one last effort and clawed their way back to 13-13 before Germany coach Raul Lozano opted for changes with Sebastian Schwarz replacing Bjorn Andrae. The changes had the desired effect as Germany found the right momentum to take a 19-16 lead before further Canadian mistakes and finally Robert Kromm’s spike gave Germany high hopes of reaching the second round.